"The outrageous proposition that we ought to protect our enemies' ability to communicate as it plots against America poses a key test of our Democratic leaders" says vice president Dick Cheney. This was in answer to senator Russ Feingold's proposition of a vote of censure against President Bush, for violating the Constitution and the laws when he authorized warrantless eavesdropping.
There was no need to get this nervous: the Democrat leaders made sure the proposition would not get to a vote.
Still giddy with the results of the fight over the ports deal and the subsequent collapse of the president's approval ratings, they are less eager to take a stand on the far less demagogic eavesdropping issue.
Mostly, they have accepted the minimalist approach: not a full committee investigation, but a seven-member subcommittee panel.
The administration's critics best hope might be Arlen Specter, the republican chairman of the Senate's Committee on the Judiciary, who is still determined to force precise answers from the White House on how and when it reached the conclusion that warrantless eavesdropping would be legal.